Bosnia’s Ambassador in Russia, Zeljko Samardzija, arrived in Sarajevo on Friday and returned the controversial centuries-old Orthodox icon which the Chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency had gifted to Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister.
After Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of BiH’s Presidency, handed Russia’s Sergey Lavrov the 300-year-old gilded icon last week, the Ukrainian Embassy in Sarajevo sent a note to the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking for detailed information on the origin of what it suspects is a piece of Ukrainian cultural heritage.
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Bosnia’s Prosecutor’s Office has meanwhile launched an investigation into the matter, and Russia returned the icon to Bosnia’s Embassy there on Wednesday until the matter is resolved.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture said that it suspects the icon could have been illegally taken from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk by mercenaries.
An advisor to Dodik, however, said on Thursday that the icon was the property of a local family in the city of Banja Luka which had it for the past 15 years.
Ukraine now demands answers from Bosnia regarding how the artefacts ended up in its territory.
Bosnia’s Ambassador in Moscow, Zeljko Samardzija, told N1 that the icon was returned to Dodik's office, as per Russia's request.
“I have personally brought the icon from Moscow and handed it to the office of the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik,” the ambassador told Radio Free Europe (RSE) earlier.
He said he informed Moscow that the icon was returned and that, in a diplomatic note to the Bosnian Embassy, Russia asks Dodik’s office to check the origin of the artefact via international agencies, primarily Interpol.
